Well off my beaten path, this isn’t science fiction or fantasy, though at times I wish it was. It’s a thoroughly persuasive example of how the same facts fed into a different context.
The book is slim and eschews hand-holding. It’s written in response to the 2014 round of well publicized police killings. Much of the anchor of the book is from his personal connection to the death of his friend from college, and going through the same process before.
It’s framed, and well framed, as a letter to his son who is struggling to process the Michael Brown acquittal. There’s some padding to provide useful hooks for people who aren’t his son–context for things like Howard University, which I barely recognized, but looms so important for historical (and still social) reason for Ta-Nehisi and his peers.
The fault lines running through the community are interesting, particularly as viewed from the inside. Ta-Nihisi’s interview with the mother of Prince Jones; her striving and overcoming proved insufficient to protect her son, despite the tremendous respect that she and her son each deserved and got from society as a whole. A single suspicious officer ended his life and the family dream, with horrific ripples throughout the communities, crushing his family, and worse.
Other parts of the book are autobiographical–he tells his son about growing up in poor neighborhoods, corrupt districts, and what going to university was like for him. Similarly, they discuss Europe (particularly Paris, which the family visits together) and its problems–but its different problems. Being alien, but not the designated bottom, and how oddly freeing it was.
The book was slim, but packed with experience. It’s written to read easily, but the new perspective is complex. I really appreciate the book for providing a familiar (studious kid) story in a new context. It’s not as hard to imagine being… someone like me, born to different parents. The struggles are similar–some the same, many entirely new. There are so many additional hazards on the way; fortunately, a couple fewer for his son–but still too many.
It’s a great book and slim read with well crafted words.